Shane

“Shane. Shane. Please come back!”

These are one of the most memorable lines ever uttered in a western movie.

Alan Ladd stars in this movie as “Shane”, a mysterious drifter who rides into a small homesteading community and accepts a job helping out the Starrett family.  The Starrett family consists of Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), his wife Marian Starrett (Jean Arthur) and his son Joey Starrett (Brandon De Wilde). 

Shane is very mysterious about his past and it becomes obvious over time that he is handy with a gun.  The young son, Joey, begins to idolize him and the wife, Marian, finds herself increasingly attracted to Shane.

The Starrett family is part of a larger group of homesteaders in the area that are being threatened by a major cattle rancher named Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer).  Ryker wants to run all of the homesteaders out of the area so that he can have complete control of the valley.  To help him, Ryker hires a gunfighter named Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) and it is a matter of time before a gun battle will have to settle the matter.

Will Shane help them?

•  “Shane”, the movie, is based on the novel "Shane" by Jack Schaefer. Jack Shaefer wrote a number of Western books.  Another one of his books, “Monte Walsh” was made into a movie, too.

•  The line “Shane. Shane. Come back!” is considered one of the most memorable quotes from a film.  In fact, the American Film Institute voted this quote #47 in its Top 100 movie quotes of all time.

•  Shane was actually filmed during the summer and fall of 1951, but it wasn’t released until almost two years later.  The reason was because the director, George Stevens, spent a lot of time editing the film. This was considered an unusually long editing time for a movie, but the result was a blockbuster, western film that has endured for generations.

• “Shane” was filmed near Jackson Hole, Wyoming with the Grand Teton mountains as a backdrop.

•  Many critics consider Clint Eastwood’s movie  “Pale Rider” essentially a remake of “Shane” because it contains many of the same elements and similar storyline.  

• “Shane” is one of the few western movies to be officially listed in the U.S. Library of Congress National Film Registry.

•  “Shane” won an Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography (Loyal Griggs) and it was nominated for five additional Academy Awards: Best Director (George Stevens), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Palance), Best Supporting Actor (Brandon De Wilde) and Best Screenplay Writing.